Church on Sunday

Marcelo, the National Director of YFC in Brazil, is also the pastor of Communidade Presbiteriana Central church. We attended with him and his family last Sunday.

Once a month the congregation has a meal together after church and we were glad that we happened upon that Sunday.

We  arrived early and so we saw the congregation preparing for the meal.

Silvana heads up a team of people who decorate the excellent outdoor space

with brightly coloured Brazilian fabric, chita,

and decorations

 and delicious traditional Brazilian foods

 

including the Doce de Leite that I mentioned in the last blog post about the market. The tiny cups were decorated with the chita too.

At the start of the church service Marcelo asked if there was anyone who'd like to share up the front about what God had been doing in their lives during the week.

 A number of people went up to tell us their stories of God at work,

 

 including this guy who made a commitment to Jesus this past week. Marcelo had been journeying with him for some time and was very emotional as the guy shared his story.

A man from the congregational interpreted the main message for us. It was from Matthew 7:24-29 - the story of the storms that ravaged the houses built on rock and on sand.

And I learned a new song in Portuguese in which we sang about our desire for God to touch our hearts so that we would return to our first love - Jesus.

After the service the beautiful women served us lunch consisting of lots of traditional Brazilian foods

  while the children played on the grass in the very protected and sun-filled yard of the church,

  surrounded, almost completely, by high-rise homes.

During lunch we spent a little while talking with this lovely single mum and her daughter. She works with Youth for Christ and has a ministry to both native Indians in the Amazon and skateboarders in the city. So interesting.

Mercado Central in Belo Horizonte

On Wednesday, our friend Thais took us into the Central Market in Belo Horizonte.

 

 The experience was a bit similar to a visit to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne,

 

 but everything was undercover and there were MANY things that were different from 'our usual'.

There were at least 6-8 shops that were peppers only. All of these coloured vegetables are peppers of various shapes, colours and sizes. I've never seen such variety. And all along the shelves in this shop are products made from the various shaped and sized pepper.

There were many shops selling all sorts of packaged herbs, many of which I didn't recognise, even when we did translate the name.

And lots of Aloe Vera for sale and sold occasionally by the pot but mostly by the piece.

 But the really interesting things were the linguiças - sausages

  and the mocotó - bone marrow (sweetened and extremely delicious). We were really surprised that we enjoyed the mocotó.

 We also tried, and bought, a little cocada cremosa - coconut cream - the one  on the right in the middle.

But my favourite of all is Doce de Leite - milk candy - which is very like caramel fudge made from sweetened condensed milk. Decadent and delicious.

Our last sweet treat was Goyabada - a  thick jelly-like sweet treat made from Guavas and sugar. 

 

 The 'tastes' are always very generous and this young lady's grandmother was the one who made the Doce de Leite. Yum

and many of the treats in her shop were beautifully wrapped in bright local Brazilian fabric. I'd like to take some of that fabric home.

But not all the interesting things we saw were sweet

like these pigs' tails,

and ears,

and trotters along with ox tongue and tripe!

 And there were pickled quail eggs in tubs,

tobacco sold by the metre in rope form,

 sliced, dried cheese

 

 and liquid butter, sold in bottles and hanging, that comes from the very dry areas in the north of Brazil.

Such an interesting day experiencing some of the sights and tastes of Brazil.

Sunday in Brazil

We arrived in Brazil last Wednesday early in the morning and took a few days to get into a new Brazilian sleeping pattern and find our way around the campsite where we're staying (more photos in a future blog)

On Sunday we decided we'd walk down through the bush/jungle/woods (??) to the river at the bottom of the campsite, still on YFC property. My YFC friend Deborah from the US had recommended the walk and we were not disappointed.

Some of the parts along the path were pretty challenging and so we older ladies (!!) had to go carefully.

We saw many interesting things along the way like this, is it a lichen? on several of the trees.

 

and this tree with tessellated bark,

lots of interesting 

spider webs 

 

and different plants.

On our way down to the river we also came across the worship circle on our way through the 'bush'.

We came to the river and walked across to the other side.

It was a glorious clear sunny day 

(no, those are not gum trees, although they do look like it from here)

 

and so we found some rocks to sit on and enjoyed reading in the sun

and praising God for His beautiful creation and for the opportunity to be enjoying it in Brazil.

I'm pretty sure we'll be going there again.

Brazil here we come

It all began on Friday afternoon when Pat and I both flew to Sydney for a weekend of 'bonding'.

On Saturday we spent the afternoon around Sydney Harbour.

 It certainly earns its reputation as the most beautiful harbour in the world. 

Stunning.

 We took a ferry ride to Mosman and back and took many photos

and of course we saw the magnificent Opera House 

and we visited Kader Attia's exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. You might like to check it out a bit more by clicking here

 

Today was the last day of VIVID Festival of Light, Music and Ideas and so we hung around until dark to see it. 

It changed the look of the Opera House.

  

Sunday was a relaxing day with a drive to Cronulla and Kurnell and lunch with Chris and Linda Harding, our wonderful hosts.

 Chris and Linda have been part of the YFC family in Australia and internationally for many years. Host and hostess with the mostest at Hotel Harding.

Thank you both for all you did caring for Pat and me and praying for us as we headed off on our big adventure. 

Waiting at Sydney airport now to fly to LA on our way to Belo Horizonte, Brazil. 

Next blog post Brazil!